Location:Temple of Light — Northern Facility
Date/Time:Mid Blazepeak, 9939 AZI
Realm:Mid Realm
The children smelled like road dust and cheap soap.
Sharlin stood at the second-floor gallery overlooking the intake courtyard and breathed in the scent of three hundred and twelve new arrivals. Road dust from the Lower Realm transit — weeks of travel through portals she controlled, along routes her scouts had mapped, in wagons her logistics division had provisioned. Cheap soap because Father Sorien insisted the children be cleaned before presentation. He was right. Clean children cried less. Clean children looked cared for. Clean children believed they'd arrived somewhere that wanted them.
